DEBKA: Israel withdrawing troops from Gaza under pressure from Rice
DEBKA is reporting that Israel's 'abrupt' suspension of operations in Gaza was brought about by Ehud K. Olmert's displeasure with the extent of the operation, and pressure from US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, who is due in Israel on Tuesday:Our military sources report that this step sharply contradicted the vocal assurances given by Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert and defense minister Ehud a few hours earlier that the operation would press on until the Hamas missile-rocket offensive against Israeli civilians was brought to an end.I wonder if Abu Mazen will now meet with Olmert while Rice is in Israel.
Up until late Sunday night, Qassam rockets continued to explode in Sderot and Katyusha rockets in Ashkelon. If this continues, Israel will resort to air, surface missile or artillery responses and short forays into Gaza as before.
DEBKAfile’s military sources said this reversed instruction from the government to the IDF in mid-offensive was astonishing and unprecedented. Senior officers were in no doubt that Palestinian Hamas terrorist leaders would rush to claim victory and declare the Israeli army had been beaten into a retreat by their “martyrs”. [Unfortunately, it's not 'unprecedented.' In Lebanon two summers ago, orders were constantly given and revoked in response to government whims. CiJ]
Our political sources disclose that Olmert, during his absence in Tokyo last week, was far from happy with the way acting PM Tzipi Livni and Barak handled the sharp spike in Palestinian missile attacks. He felt they had caused an unnecessary escalation of the crisis to the point that a major military operation was unavoidable.
Olmert held that short, sharp military strikes would have defused the crisis and obviated the need for a broad military offensive in Gaza, which he had consistently prevented.
This week, the prime minister came under heavy US pressure to break off the operation. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice threatened to call off her visit which was scheduled for Tuesday, March 4 and lay the blame on Israel for the breakdown of peace talks with the Palestinians, although Mahmoud Abbas formally suspended all contacts with Israel until its army ended its Gaza incursion. She accused Israel of undermining the Bush administration’s entire Middle East strategy by its stepped-up Gaza offensive.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:36 AM
5 Comments:
Like drugs, Israel has to learn to just say no.
Unless Israel gets rid of this toxic narcissistic premier it now has and learns to say NO, it will cease to be regarded as an independent country by it's supporters.This is something to think about for its forthcoming
60th Birthday.
Israel is NOT really an independent country. Israel's leaders first priority is pleasing international opinion and second protecting the Jewish State. For them, having a nice tete a tete with Secretary Rice counts for more than the lives of the people in Sderot and Ashkelon. Besides, they were just looking for an excuse - ANY excuse - to avoid ordering the IDF back into Gaza.
So he didn't learn from Lebanon.
Who says Ehud Olmert learned from Lebanon? He's shown that he's learned nothing from losing the last war. I must say however, he is a genius at knowing when to cut the IDF off at the knees just when things are going well on the battlefield. He would have ceded Austerlitz before Napoleon could have taken it.
Post a Comment
<< Home